US, Egypt ‘hopeful’ of Gaza truce as envoys meet in Cairo

According to the Hamas source, the latest plan proposes an Israeli withdrawal from two main roads through the coastal territory to allow Gazans to return to the heavily impacted north.

Hamas negotiator Zaher Jabareen told AFP that “success or failure” will be determined by “the ability to reach a permanent ceasefire decision” – a condition Israel has rejected before – and to agree “clear” plans for reconstruction of war-battered Gaza.

The Axios news website, citing Israeli officials, reported that Israel’s latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the “restoration of sustainable calm” after hostages are released.

HOSTAGE RELEASE TALKS

As diplomatic efforts intensified, a State Department official said Blinken will also travel to Israel and neighbouring Jordan later this week.

His Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, said Sunday the international “political system” had failed in its response to the “catastrophe” in Gaza.

Prince Faisal told the WEF summit that only “a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state” will prevent the world from confronting “this same situation” again in the future.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government has rejected calls for Palestinian statehood.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appealed at the WEF meeting for the United States to stop Israel from invading Rafah, which he said would be “the biggest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people”.

In February, Netanyahu said any truce deal would only delay – not prevent – a Rafah operation.

War cabinet member Benny Gantz said that “Rafah is important in the long struggle against Hamas” but also that the Israeli government “will not have the right … to exist” if it blocks a deal to free the captives.

Media reports said the Israeli government had authorised its negotiators to discuss the initial release of fewer than the 40 hostages it had previously demanded during the first phase of a truce.

US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu by phone Sunday about the truce negotiations and “increases in the delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza”, the White House said.

They discussed “preparations” to open new crossings to northern Gaza, where conditions have been particularly dire, it added.

Elsewhere, Hamas’s armed wing claimed a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon at a military position in northern Israel, though the military reported no casualties or damage.